WARRENSBURG, Mo. — From the opening tip, Washburn struggled to get into any kind of rhythm on the road at Central Missouri.

UCM jumped out to an 8-0 lead and led the entire way as Washburn fought an inconsistent effort in a 77-63 loss on Monday at UCM Multipurpose Building.

Washburn, which fell to 11-2 overall and 4-2 in MIAA play, shot just 37 percent from the field against the Mules.

“We came out slow, and we never really got over the hump,” Washburn junior forward Alex North said. “We were close a couple times — we’d go on a little run and then they’d go on a run of their own.”

After the quick start from the Mules, Washburn used a 9-2 run to come within a point, but that was one of the few spurts of offense the Ichabods generated. UCM quickly answered with an 11-3 run to take a 21-12 lead.

Central (12-2, 4-1 MIAA) took a 42-31 lead at halftime and pushed the lead to 16 points early in the second half. Washburn never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

“We tried every offense we had — we just struggled,” WU coach Bob Chipman said. “We tried to throw it to the post, and the post couldn’t catch it deep for a while. Then when we tried to spread it and drive it, and we kicked it off our shoe a couple times. We tried to shoot the three, and the three wouldn’t go down.

“It was not a good offensive game, and they just outworked us on the boards.”

North led Washburn with 16 points. Kyle Wiggins was the only other Ichabod in double figures, scoring 10. The Mules continued to rely on a balanced scoring attack, with four players reaching double figures. T.J. White led Central with 12 points while Charles Hammork had 11. Jon Gilliam and Daylen Robinson each added 10.

“They play a lot of guys. They come off the bench with a lot of guys that can play,” North said. “We just have to do a better job as a team of rebounding and defending.

"I think if you take away the slow start, our defense in the first half wasn’t that bad. We gave them a lot of easy transition buckets from our turnovers. We just have to learn from this loss and get better for next time.”

Washburn junior guard Jeff Reid took just one shot and finished with one point.

“Some of the guards are new, and they’re just trying to figure out where their shots come from,” Chipman said. “They don’t realize that Jeff’s a heckuva shooter and we need to get him shots. We’re just not there yet.”

Washburn will return to action Saturday, hosting Northwest Missouri State at 7 p.m. in Lee Arena.